Our restaurant critics' picks of the latest and best eats
around the country this week, including Vic's Meat Market,
Meatmaiden, Nikuya and The Clove Club at Momofuku
Seiobo.

SYDNEYVic's Meat Market
Father and son team Anthony and Vic
Puharich, best known for taking butchery boutique at Victor Churchill in Woollahra
and, as Vic's Premium Quality Meat, wholesalers to the stars, have
brought turf to the city's vendors of surf, opening a palace of the
flesh at the Sydney Fish Market. In addition to the mighty fine
retail meat offerings (not quite so fancy as Victor Churchill, but
not nearly so eye-wateringly expensive, either), the new Vic's Meat
Market has a separate glassed-off area doing two very different but
equally interesting cooked offerings. The massive Yoder smoker
broadcasts its presence at a range of many feet (even in the
admittedly competitive olfactory environment of the Pyrmont docks):
here be American-style barbecue. The low-and-slow smoked pork butts
the iron behemoth produces are shredded (or pulled, if you will)
and stuffed on a bun with coleslaw. Pretty good for $10, better
still if you stretch to a Young Henry's off the tap. Then there's
the Wagyu Tasting Bar, a counter dedicated solely to the worship of
the high-end beef Vic's has specialised in for more than a decade.
Fifty bucks buys the entry-level 150 grams of Rangers Valley
rib-eye, $70 gets 150 grams of Blackmore striploin, and then
there's the $90 Rolls Royce option: the "Emperor's Cut", 150 grams
of Rangers Valley spinalis, the tasty muscle that cups the Scotch
fillet on a rib-eye. Whichever cut you choose, it's seared and
sliced Japanese-style and served very simply with a daikon and
cucumber garnish and a soy-based dipping sauce. And to drink? It
seems fitting, somehow, that it's all Grange by the glass - eight
different vintages on any given day, from around $50 for 75ml.
There, ladies and gentlemen, is the beef. Vic's Meat Market,
Sydney Fish Market, Bank St, Pyrmont, NSW, (02) 8570 8570. PAT
NOURSE

BRISBANENikuya
Might you describe yourself as a tonkatsu obsessive? The menu at
Nikuya, a sharp new tonkatsu and kushiyaki specialist at M&A,
describes its signature pork loin rosukatsu as "passionately"
coated in panko. Taste it, though, and the descriptor seems less
OTT. Not only is kurobuta the pig of choice, but the jacket of
golden crumbs encasing it is made in-house from Nikuya's own bread.
The loin arrives on a rack to keep it crisp, with lemon and a heap
of undressed cabbage to cut the richness. You also score a
suribachi (that is, a Japanese mortar and pestle) with sesame seeds
so you can customise the tonkatsu sauce. Sake-tasting sets (in
three or five options) are recommended. There's plenty more beyond
the katsu, too, whether it's juicy skewers seasoned with salt or
teriyaki and nicely made gyoza through to sashimi, chilled soba
noodles and even wafu pasta on offer. A second-floor barbecue
venue, focused on wagyu yakiniku, shabu shabu and sukiyaki, is also
in the works. Nikuya, shop 8 & 8M, M&A, 100 MacLachlan
St, Fortitude Valley, Qld, (07) 3252 3883. FIONA
DONNELLY

MELBOURNEMeatmaiden
There's no shortage of American barbecue in Melbourne at the
moment, though the quality and authenticity of the local stuff is
all over the chart. Heavy-handedness with the smoking making
brisket into soft, fatty charcoal is a common problem that could
turn the tide against the genre. At Meatmaiden, the more upmarket
CBD sibling of Richmond's admirably grungy Meatmother, there's more care on show and no
guilty thoughts about the beast that supplied the brisket (in this
case, wagyu from Rangers Valley) having died in vain. Sure there's
smoke in the mix but there's also native pepperberry and,
mercifully, the satisfying flavour of meat. The beef short-ribs are
also worth a look, but it would be criminal to miss the lobster mac
- a ridiculous-sounding combination of macaroni cheese topped with
really good lobster that's an astounding, resounding success.
There's a grill, too, for those who just want a regular steak, plus
well-respected oysters, some rather good fried chicken ribs with
tequila mayo and a decent list of craft beers on tap. It's a place
to refresh the somewhat tarnished reputation of Amer-Melburnian
barbecue. Meatmaiden, basement, 195 Little Collins St,
Melbourne, Vic, (03) 9078 7747. MICHAEL HARDEN

SYDNEY BONUSThe
Clove Club at Momofuku Seiobo
The Clove Club has been one of London's most talked about recent
openings (and with good reason: see our travel feature on London's best new
restaurants), and now, thanks to chef Isaac McHale coming to
the country to cook for Ben Shewry's WAW Gathering, we have the chance to
taste his food in the comfort and safety of our own country. If
you've missed out on tickets for the WAW lunch he's cooking at this
Sunday (along with Shewry, Roy Choi, Inaki Aizpitarte, Daniel
Patterson, David Thompson and a score of other very exciting local
and international names) you can catch him cooking with his old
Young Turks buddy Ben Greeno at Momofuku Seiobo next week. "It's
all going to be Isaac's food," says Greeno. He and the Momo team
are pulling out all the stops to lay hands on "some cool stuff"
that's available in quantities too small to use often on the
regular Seiobo menu, and you can also expect Clove Club signatures
such as its pine buttermilk chicken and consommé with 100-year-old
Madeira ("we actually got Madeira from 1890 and 1922"). It should
be a heck of a night. Isaac McHale at Momofuku Seiobo,
Thursday 9 October, $155 for seven courses, not including drinks,
bookings via EventBrite. PAT
NOURSE

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